Denominational Battles

Well, when I was just a kid my family went to the Greenwood Community Church in Greenwood, Indiana. Once the church got rather incredibly large we went to it's sister church, Franklin Community Church in Franklin, Indiana. Around the age of 10 my family moved to Wisconsin and attended the Church of Christ in Janesville, Wisconsin where Jon Grice was Pastor(my father had been friends with him here at MBC). We were members of that church for many years. I guess you could say I grew up in that church. I was there 4-12 grade. However, during my Senior year in highschool I also started attending the Seventh Day Baptist Church in Milton, Wisconsin with a friend and became a member there my Freshman year of college. I still attend that church whenever I am home. My parents have now been going to Saunders Creek Community Church for the past few years and I attend there with them when I am home as well. When I am asked what denomination I am, I reply...I am not a denomination, I'm a Christian. Honestly, I think all these different denominations are ridiculous! Every church I have attended, although there have been very minor differences in things such as communion or baptism practices, the core beliefs are the same. And I firmly believe that even within a denomination people will differ in their beliefs. We are called as Christians(followers of Christ), not as Church of Christ'ers' or Baptists or Protestants or Catholics or Lutherans and so on, but as one holistic group. We are called to be united and to reach the masses with love. Instead, with all these different denominations, we are competeing to see who's got the higher membership count or the better building or the more "cool" programs. It's ridiculous and it certainly is not accomplishing what we were commissioned to do.I have learned from my classes here at Crossroads and in my life experiences that there needs to be some serious unification amongst Christians both within each denomination and amongst the denominations. Now, although I firmly believe this, at this point in time I am still working on developing ideas of how to accomplish this. I do know that there needs to be prayer, confession, and humility amongst all Christians for this to even begin taking place. It needs to be an individualistic thing just as much as a holistic thing. You can't change the group if there are unwilling participants. So I guess, at this point in time, prayer and working on yourself is the first step.